I'm going to try to start blogging more (for the eight of you who check it). I started this blog three years ago when I went to Oxford. I probably won't be going to England or Mongolia or getting married or doing anything dramatic for a while. But interesting things are still happening, all in the name of...
THEOLOGY.
Going to seminary is not something I ever desired to do. Thanks to Anderson, I am encountering a rich experience that I would not have pursued otherwise. I plan to start sharing interesting things I'm learning here. If theology isn't your thing, well -- I understand. (But secretly I plan to change your mind.)
--------------------------------------------------
ORIGEN (interesting parts in very dark purple font)
An early church father (c. 140-210). (c. = circa, means "approximately" when used with dates)
Heretic! That's what the Second Council of Constantinople said slightly after the fact in 543. Origen said, "Christ is given the second place of honor after God the Father."
Did Origen mean that Jesus was less important than the Father? The jargon of theology wasn't fully settled when he said that (meaning they didn't have all the terms sorted out). So we don't know for sure. But people afterward used him to say that, so eventually he was called a heretic.
Whatever he might have meant, he meant what he said. He was a person of conviction. When his Christian father was condemned to be executed, young Origen wanted to run after him and be executed too. But his mom hid all of his clothes so he couldn't leave the house.
------------------------------------------------------------------
My source for church history things is one of our professors, whom we will call Dr. Z. I haven't double-checked him, but his PhD is in church history, and he's a Baptist, so he must be trustworthy.
When I told Anderson about my new blogging plan, he said, I'm so boring you're going to start blogging about men from the 100's? I tried to tell him that's not what I meant. Right now he's in the bedroom with the door shut so I can't tell yet if he was kidding or not.